Anya Josephine

I'm sitting at the computer tonight, drinking tea, and thinking of my best friend, Anya. She calls me Panday. She lives far away. I haven't had tea with Anya in 3+ years.

She has been my friend for 15 years. I was her Maid of Honour when she got married. She would have been my Maid of Honour too. She wasn't able to come to the wedding because she was pregnant, and not allowed to board a plane. I opted not to bestow the title of Maid of Honour on anyone, because only Anya deserved it. We also knew that she was a Matron, not a Maid, but Matron made her sound like a prison warden, or some mean old woman, like Katherine, Catherine Brooke.

She was my friend when I was anorexic. She yelled and screamed and cried at me to eat. She loved me through my recovery. When my home life wasn't good she'd drive 45 minutes to come and see me, just to make sure I was OK.

When my first love shattered my heart to pieces she brought me daisies, took me to lunch and then on a drive to Chuckanut Drive. She didn't even seem too mad that I fell asleep after all that driving either. Did I mention that if fell asleep because I drank 3 Long Island Iced Teas in the middle of the day? Chuckanut Drive is a lovely road in Washington that is nothing but farms and trees. Beautiful.

We went on crazy trips to Bellingham to go for Taco Bell, when Taco Bell was only South of the border. Taco Bell when you're 19 is heaven. Taco Bell when you're 32 is totally overrated.

We'd go to the tea store at Park Royal and buy all sorts of delicious tea - earl grey/jasmine, jasmine on it's own, and one incredibly lovely one called Cream. Yummy. Sometimes we'd drink tummy tea, which was some sort of variation of peppermint, for sore tummies.

She didn't get mad when AF came in the middle of the night, ruining her cool dinosaur jammies. I was horrified. She was all "whatever" about it.

Once we went out after midnight and wreaked havoc on her neighbourhood. We took For Sale signs from people's yards and placed them on unsuspecting homeowners half a block down. The thought of someone getting up in the morning, looking out the window with the morning coffee in hand, going "what the hell?" drove us into hysterics.

We would go to Kmart and laugh at those creepy half doll bodies, or doll heads, that old ladies knit lavender skirts for. You know the type? Some were even made up to look like hookers. We named one Vera. If we were feeling really sassy we might move stuff around - put some underwear in with the chocolate bars. Yes, we were very mature for our age.

My favourite thing was listening to Modest Mouse, or Hayden under a blue light, or surrounded by multi-coloured Christmas lights in June. There is something so warm and comforting about that thought, still.

She has a great husband, and a beautiful little girl who I had the privilege of meeting 3 years ago. Her little girl is nearly 5!

Anya is patient, kind, funny and a beautiful example of a woman following Christ.

Anya Josephine. My best friend.